Another absolute banger from Netflix and their editing team, NASCAR: Full Speed’s second season leaves more on the table, but has the potential to put NASCAR ahead of the competition.
NASCAR: Full Speed Season 2 Is Great, But We Need The Full Season
NASCAR: Full Speed puts the fan inside the personal life, and I mean *very* personal lives of the sixteen drivers racing for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at season’s end. But there is a glaring problem. What put them in their position to run for a championship?
The casual Netflix viewer does not know. They don’t know that Brad Keselowski won the 2024 Goodyear 400 because his driver, Chris Buescher, and Tyler Reddick collected each other. The viewers did not see Bowman win in Chicago, or that Chase Elliott broke a winless streak earlier that year.
These storylines have been erased by either Netflix or the drivers not wanting to be involved. But these storylines are vital to the story of the playoffs. A quick glimpse in the first episode is not enough.
If Netflix can make 10 episodes of a Formula 1 season where a driver wins and a manufacturer wins most of the races, we can get an episode on what happened in the 26 races in an hour.
But while I have complaints, I also applaud the series. Let’s go into my thorns and roses on NASCAR: Full Speed season two.
Let This Be The Start Of A Full Season of NASCAR: Full Speed
Joey Logano wins the championship, and Netflix makes this seem legitimate. Logano won the race at Nashville, a race filled with restarts and the #22 leading just 9 laps. Hardly anything about how Kyle Larson won three races in the pre-season, or how we had multiple drivers with two or more race wins.
You can not say that it was an issue with the driver wanting to be in the show or not. Denny Hamlin won three as well and was prominently featured in the show. This would have been better than anything in Netflix Motorsports’ history; multiple drivers with multiple wins. The preseason means nothing, the winners are just involved.
We get a little of the meaningful winners, Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe. But can we think about how much more it would mean if we knew that Bowman had a back injury, beat some of the best road racers in NASCAR to win at Chicago? No, because we did not get the full season in depth. We only got a small recap.
Give us the full season or at least do the pre-season justice, because it gives the viewer more context.
READ MORE: Chase Briscoe will send Stewart-Haas out on a high note
NASCAR: Full Speed Takes Even More Behind The Scenes Than Drive To Survive:
We saw Chase Briscoe’s wife in the hospital room after giving birth to twins. Tell me, does Drive to Survive take you in the hospital room?
NASCAR saw this opportunity with Netflix, and the teams ran with it. Jeff Gordon and the Hendrick team going into Martinsville, we got to see the war room. Would McLaren or Red Bull give the same access to a team meeting when their drivers are in contention for a championship? The answer is hell f– king no.
We got that with Hendrick Motorsports, arguably bigger than an F1 team in sheer size.
It granted us a view on Michael Jordan, and his emotion seeing his team going into the Final Four in their fourth year of competition. Ryan Blaney, defending champion, joking with him, saying “You B-tch, F–k You” quoting Larry Bird and MJ.
We see how volatile F1 is through Drive To Survive, team principles fighting over words, making a mountain out of a mole hill. But it is refreshing to see that this is a family, regardless of team or manufacturer, this is a family. Joke and congratulate when necessary and regroup and head to the next weekend.
READ MORE : Tyler Reddick Continues To Defy Odds, Reaches Championship Four
Netflix and NASCAR; Give Us More
I’ve gone through the bad and the good, so let me give my final thoughts.
Joey Logano winning the championship looks good on TV, but it does not tell the true story of the season. How can full be in the title when you only tell a third of the season?
Logano was the worst champion in history, with an average finish of 17.1. But to the casual viewer, who NASCAR seems to be so in love with, that was a run worthy of its own ESPN 30 for 30.
But true fans know, and should not be underestimated with. While only five episodes long, a sixth episode giving more insight into the pre-season would be great.
While the release date could have been better, it gave me a reminder into what happened last season. While we are almost to the halfway mark of the 2025 season, while Logano was having an off year in 2024 until Nashville, we have seen the same unfold. Logano found himself in victory lane once again, while boasting an average finish of 18th.
NASCAR and Netflix, lets keep this going but I ask you. Give us more. More context, more insight, more to give the casual viewer a complete understanding. I believe with this, we can use NASCAR: Full Speed in the same way other motorsports have.
READ NEXT: Joey Logano Makes Late Charge to Win Crashed Filled NASCAR Cup Series Race at Texas
Main Photo: Meg Oliphant, Getty Images
Date: 11/10/2024
